Madison — Sixteen years ago, in a stadium halfway around the world, Suzy Favor Hamilton tumbled to the track in a heap of pain and shame.

On Tuesday night, she stood tall.

Favor Hamilton, 47, returned to Madison for the first time in months to tell the personal and poignant story of her lifetime battle with mental illness. Speaking to the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Dane County, she talked for 45 riveting minutes about her journey and her ongoing recovery from bipolar disorder.

She pulled no punches, touching on everything from her misdiagnosis of depression to suicide attempts to the year spent as a $600-an-hour escort in Las Vegas, her mania and hypersexuality fueled by "a desire, a need to push the high to the next level."

Favor Hamilton is one of the greatest middle-distance runners in U.S. history, a three-time Olympian who won 23 Big Ten and nine NCAA track and cross-country titles at the University of Wisconsin.

As a professional, the Stevens Point native was a seven-time U.S. champion and at one point owned five of the nine fastest-ever times by an American woman in the 1,500 meters. Though she was a three-time Olympian, she never won a medal.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, determined to win gold to honor the memory of her brother Dan, who was bipolar and committed suicide after going off his medications, she led the 1,500 final with less than half a lap left but hit the wall — she'd always struggled with the rigors of the three-round format — and intentionally tumbled to the track.

Standing at the lectern in a ballroom at the Madison Concourse Hotel, Favor Hamilton told a hushed crowd of more than 200, "I remember laying there thinking, 'You're the worst person in the world.'"

It wasn't long before the darling of the American track and field world was spiraling deeper and deeper into darkness. After giving birth to her daughter, Kylie, she was misdiagnosed with postpartum depression and was prescribed Prozac and later Zoloft; the latter can be dangerous and even deadly for those with bipolar disorder.

"The anti-depressants were fueling my manic episodes," she said.

Favor Hamilton, outwardly vibrant and healthy, soon was out of control, engaging in risky sexual behavior and abusing drugs and alcohol. Once, she said, she ran in a half-marathon, flew to Las Vegas and serviced five clients, all in one day.

Exposed by a story published on thesmokinggun.com in December 2012, Favor Hamilton admitted she had been leading a double life. Her marriage to her college sweetheart, Mark Hamilton, was in shambles. The stigma and shame affected relationships with family members. Lifelong friends turned their back on her.

"One person told me, 'Why don't you kill yourself like your brother did?'" she said. "It's no wonder people with mental illness have such a hard time coping."

Favor Hamilton's long journey back to the light began when she was correctly diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2013.

"The first year of recovery was a living hell," she said. "I had incredible mood shifts. I was very, very depressed. I had been manic for so long. In the summer of 2013, Mark almost left me. For the first time in my life, I realized all the damage I had done."

Slowly, but surely, the Hamiltons put back together the pieces of their shattered lives. They moved to suburban Los Angeles. An art major at Wisconsin, Favor Hamilton got back in touch with her artistic side. She started doing yoga. Last year, she hiked the Grand Canyon solo. She wrote her autobiography, "Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness."

"Once you tell your story," she said, "you're on the road to recovery. I now see my long battle as a gift."

Favor Hamilton said she would like to rebuild her fractured relationship with the UW, where she was a three-time Big Ten female athlete of the year.

"I wish I had some support from the athletic department," she said. "I've been shunned."

It's just one of the many prices she has paid for a mental illness over which she had no control.

"I had no idea of the magnitude of my actions," she said. "I could outrun just about anybody. I could beat the clock, but I didn't realize I was a ticking time bomb."

It took a long time for Favor Hamilton to get to a healthier place. She did it not by running faster than the wind but by taking small, halting steps on the road to recovery, the next day's sunrise bringing new hope.

"I've forgiven myself," she said. "I'm still a work in progress. I understand my illness and I try really, really hard to stay away from the triggers.

"We have to put shame behind us. Shame holds millions of people back. I want people to know that with love and with help, you can claw your way back from the darkness."